What I Got Out of Last Night’s Republican Candidate Debate

1)As Newt Gingrich pointed out, Herman Cain’s plan will be a hard sell. Cain insisted that people go to his website and read the analysis of his plan. The problem is, most people won’t. People only have time for soundbites these days so they take what they hear at face value. And I can guarantee that if somehow Cain became the nominee, Obama would constantly repeat that the plan would be an increase for low-income people and the middle class. Cain needs to either refine his message, refine his plan, or move on to another thing to harp on.

2)Romney and Perry REALLY don’t like each other. Perry decided “screw the debate rules” and repeatedly talked over Romney, even when Romney reminded him he would get time to rebut. At one point Romney put his hand on Perry. Since they were in Vegas, someone should’ve erected a ring and let these two go at it.

3)I don’t think Ron Paul has a chance, but I found his plan to cut $1 trillion in his first year as president to be quite interesting.

4)Quote of the night goes to Newt Gingrich:

If you want to understand how totally broken Washington is, look at this entire model of a supercommitte, which has now got a magic number to achieve and if it doesn’t achieve the magic number then we’ll all have to shoot ourselves in the head. So when they come back with a dumb idea to merely cut off our right leg, we will all be grateful that they are only semi-stupid instead of being totally stupid.

5)Cain was attacked by his fellow candidates over how the additional sales tax would add to the state taxes already being paid by citizens. Cain said it was comparing apples to oranges. All he really needed to say was that federal tax policy can’t be dictated by the tax policy of each and every state. That’s why it’s apples and oranges. Simple, right?

6)Bachmann is done. Some of her answers were just plain weird. When asked what can be done about foreclosures, she starts talking about moms who are losing their nests. Huh?